rob D2

wife has just informed me 'there is a mag on the microwave' - looking forward to seeing this in the RM later !

excellent , definately makes me think west country. Got any spare 'black rat ' stickers ?!

Thanks simon.

can anybody confirm the bye bye tug being at westerliegh this morning, circa 1030, Was driving past on the M4, so not 100% certain !

Hey craig, that western photo - hayle viaduct ? Just occured to me as I drove under it yesterday on my way to st ives. I had hoped to catch some china clay trains but the one I was after at golant was a 'no show'.

well I think we would all become NIMBYs when someone wants to put HS2 through your backgarden ! I know if I had an expensive house in the chilterns I would be hoping mad at this, degradation of the scenery and drop of house value. I have not read the whole case for HS2 but brum is really not that far from london, did we not recently upgrade the WCML so people could get there quicker ? How much time does this shave off ?

nice work keith

well the 66s are almost a decade younger than the 60s. I would think DBS are overhauling 60s more because they need something reliable on the heaviest trains, rather than because some 66s are heading to poland.

Was '011 overhauled - I didn't think so ? The 37s were painted because they had a number of railtours to do and, presumably, DBS were not happy for numerous photos to appear of their locos in knackered/faded EWS red. I am surprised they are not overhauling a handful of 37s for routes that have the lower RA. Basically giving up on doing an engineering trains on these routes entirely - I guess the maths didn't add up.

I like this, The way you think out the operations gives it some real credibility - a sense of realism you don't often get. I like to think even the smallest layout I do the actual movements have some purpose (even in 7' !) Also a fan of the west highlands - although I missed the large logo era, having said that the trips I made to FW in 97/98/99 were pretty good. Transrail 37/4s, 37403 in green, dutch 37/0s, EWS 37s and that 37 still in intercity (37510 ?). Combined with the jacobite, scenery and hiring a mountain bike to see the surrounds it was a good time. Also the trip freights with slurry/paper/timber around corpach, seriously nostalgic when you look at the traffic on the line now .

Yes love that layout. It reminds me of the circa 1980 "lochside" by Ian Futers (I think).I have already reread it twice because thats the standard of modelling I aspire to.Well done.

so who will be the first with a limited edition Hornby 60 ? My money's on the chap who used to own REX....

Bridge looks fantastic, and like the sweeping curves under it.

However, for me, I don't detest MPD layouts - I like the ones with individuality,where maybe the shed is scratchbuilt, small details that don't come from a catalogue kind of thing. I saw that large EWS shed layout at Warley, that was in RM a bit back, and it left me a bit cold. The amount of EWS locos on shed would have had their finance director off work with stress.

I think the GWR BLT has gone full circle - it's not nearly as common as once was. I have to agree the modern TMD is becoming a bit of a cliche. In real life EWS/DBS has binned most of their large TMDs such as canton etc, if you want to model a large TMD used by that company you have either toton or, er, bescot and thats about it and if you do decide to do it please don't use the peco HST shed and knightwing fuelling points ! This is somewhat tongue in cheek as I have used both in past layouts, but I would feel a bit , lazy, to use them again unless I was doing Finsbury Park circa 1980.

I don't think there are any rail served cement works in that area any more.There are some aggregate trains from peak forest (I think) to receiving terminals in the area.

Good to see the 60s still out and about, we had 074 down at calvert recently. Not sure I like the livery on 099- I think the corus logo was much smarter. That 'tata' logo looks like it was drawn by a five year old using crayons.

60071 southbound to didcot yard yesterday with containers - maybe bicester trip ?

It's good to see a few more 60s back , but they have had their day and I see 20 are up for sale by DBS now. Not wishing to reignite the argument but I'll take issue with the idea that burkhardt liked any of the ex BR Traction as in the REX interview he had nothing at all good to say about any of them whatsoever. I'm sure in 10 years or so we'll all be chasing the last 66/0s ! For all of their faults at least they look like a diesel, I imagine whatever comes next will have anti gravity propulsion and not need rails !

tricky question, Alot of 'preserved lines' don't have the most interesting infrastructure (single line, grotty portacabins, piles of scrap wating to be preserved) but some do. I think the problem as hinted at before is that of interesting operation. I had considered doing something on the WSR to minehead - pretty line, through charter trains, the EWS freight as happened in the late 90s, but on an average day the operation would be a bit dull timetable wise.

Thanks folks, I can sell my model of it then as its a bit out of period

ha ha, I like that, vision of M6 at a standstill ( no change there then). Everyone waiting for salvation from the 66s ?!

Hi, can anyone tell me when 31110 was repainted into heritage green ? Also where there any BS dutch 31/1s still going in the period 1996 -2000, I am thinking of the skinhead variety especially the named versions. thanks, Rob

Like the layout, very nice. Is that a mainline class 31 in the background ? very unusual model.